Probe Of State Lab Shows Evidence Lost

September 14, 1985|By Dave Schneidman.

The investigation of a state toxicology laboratory that has been shut down indicated that evidence into intoxication and criminal and civil cases was lost, mishandled or improperly analyzed, state officials said Friday.

James B. Zagel, director of state police, said at a press conference in the State of Illinois Center, ``What was at stake here was the integrity of the entire justice system in Illinois. When evidence cannot be secured properly and is not analyzed accurately, then it has no value in court, in either criminal or civil cases. The potential for a miscarriage of justice was too great to tolerate anything but an immediate change in the way the lab operated.``

Zagel added that the investigation into the laboratory indicated that evidence had been mishandled or improperly analyzed in as many as ``a dozen blood alcohol tests, an arsenic poisoning case and 13 other cases, most of which are civil.``

He said he has informed the various state`s attorneys who are involved in the cases of the faulty lab work, but added he did not believe that anyone has been wrongly convicted as a result of the mishandlings.

The object of the inquiry was the now-closed Forensic Toxicology Laboratory at 2121 W. Taylor St., operated by the state Department of Public Health.

Problems at the laboratory were indicated last January, when state Inspector General Jeremy Margolis received information from the Lake County state`s attorney`s office that crucial evidence in a criminal case was missing from the laboratory.

As a result of that complaint, Zagel said, a probe was undertaken by state police internal investigation. When the probe indicated the problems in the laboratory were broader than that single case, the matter was taken to Gov. James Thompson on Feb. 6. The governor ordered that the supervision and operation of the laboratory be assumed by the Department of State Police, at that time known as the Department of Law Enforcement. On April 29, the laboratory was shut down and the work was farmed out to other toxicology laboratories.

During the investigation, Zagel said, ``we found outdated equipment, we found unsanitary and in some cases dangerous conditions--dangerous to the employees of the lab. Dr.(John J.) Spikes, who was head of the lab, was informed . . . that the lab function would be performed henceforth by the Department of Law Enforcement.``

Spikes and another employee of the laboratory subsequently resigned. Some of the other nine lab employees are still on the state payroll, and the status of two others is under review.

Zagel said the people he assigned to take over supervision of the lab

``discovered to their shock, and I must say even to their horror, that the problems even went deeper than evidence handling and outdated equipment and improper supervision. One lab director discovered irregularities in blood alcohol testing. . . . Results . . . showed uniform rates of error well beyond the allowable limits.``

Experts calor June that the entire laboratory ought to be scrapped, that there was no point in making any attempt to reconstruct the lab.``